


Pizza with Death

by litra



Series: Supernatural: Chicago [1]
Category: Supernatural, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Because of Reasons, Crossover, Gen, IT COULD HAPPEN, Pizza, awesome characters being awesome, because it fit so well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/pseuds/litra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is already trying to deal with a crowd of necromancers when a certain hunter drives into town to make a deal with Death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pizza with Death

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was re-watching the finally of season five of supernatural and I happened to be rereading Dead Beet at the same time, and it just fit.  
> It fit so crazily well that i kind of just stopped and stared in awe.   
> and once it was in my head all the pieces fell into place.

The day was halfway gone when I managed to check in with Thomas and Butters again.

I had been out and around town running a few errands and collecting the ingredients for one of the most dangerous Summonings of my wizarding career while they stayed in the nice safe cozy atmosphere of Murphy's house doing research into the Darkhallow and the numbers that had to lead to the Word of Kemler. I was only having marginal success. Sheila had provided me with the poem that would allow me to summon the Erlking, but with power in the city shut down I was having trouble finding the rest of what I would need. I was hoping for a bit of good news from Thomas’s side of things.

Given how my life was going I really should have expected that the phone managing to connect wasn’t going to lead to anything good.

“Hello?” Thomas’s voice sounded almost as surprised at the call as I was that it had worked. With the hex over the city combined with my own bad luck with electronics, I had made the call more in an effort to stay moving than anything else.

“Thomas? Hey, it’s me.”

“Harry, Thank God. You need to hear this.”

Thomas shifted the phone and for a moment I was afraid the phone had cut out as i got a burst of static. the part of me that was still hoping had shrunk at the tone if my half-brother’s voice but it never the less insisted on reminding me that he hadn’t actually said something bad had happened. Then i heard Bob’s voice on the other end of the line and the simple fact that he didn’t throw a wisecrack at me first chance buried that final bit of hope.

“Boss, there’s something coming.--”

I missed the second half of what he said thanks to another burst of static. I shifted the phone to my other ear and half-screamed, “What?”

“Death is in the city, Harry.” and that time I really wished I hadn’t heard him.

“Kind of comes with the necromancers Bob.” I was trying for jovial but it came out more strained than anything else.

“Not death, Harry. Death capital D, the horseman himself.”

Hells Bells, as if I didn’t have enough on my plate.

“Okay, Okay, what does that mean?”

“It means, the Kemlerites might not need to summon the Erlking”

Well, crap. “What do you mean Bob? Did one of them summon this guy instead?”

“I don’t think so boss. He, Ahh, has demons with him, and not the fun tear your face off kind from the closer Nevernever, Hellspawn.”

Demons on the physical plane. That would have been bad news all on it’s own. When a demon wasn’t manifesting with the aid of a spell they had to possess humans, and in the rare cases I had seen the host hadn’t ever survived.

“Nicodemus?” the voice didn’t sound like mine, but there was no one else it could belong to.

“No.” and Bob sounded firm on that at least. “We lucked out there Boss these are just your run of the mill denizens of hell.”

I had to wonder what it meant that only having a handful of demons to deal with was an up side. I’d only killed a demon once, and that was more just guarding Michael’s back while he did all the smiting. I knew the theory behind an exorcism even if I had never been big on the whole faith thing.

Of course if I did manage to get through the demons I then had to deal with a Horseman of the Apocalypse; and if I didn’t at least try to deal with him, I would have to deal with three possibly four superpowered necromancers later that night. Damn it I couldn’t afford to let this pass. Maybe if I hurried I could screw up whatever ritual was being used to summon him here, that had been the plan with the Erlking.

I figured Cowl or Kumori had to be the ones actually performing the ritual. They were the ones with the real power. One of them to hex the power grid the other to summon the horseman (since I had deprived them of a means to summon the Erlking), and the dominoes would start falling for the darkhallow.

The phone crackled again and I reminded myself that I didn’t have a lot of time to think about this.

“Any idea where they are?”

I wasn’t sure my question got through, but Bob answered all right so I must have at least partially intelligible.

“Sure Boss, he’s not hiding. He was holed up in a warehouse by the docks for a while but he’s shifted to a pizza joint in Lincoln Park, Rinaseita Pizzeria.”

Pizza, I almost laughed. It was mostly the tension but I couldn’t help the image of Toot-toot and the other little folk popping into my head. I knew Chicago pizza was good, and sure I’d bribed otherworldly creatures with it before but Death? That was almost too much.

I confirmed the location and hung up. Making my way back to my trusty car the Blue Beetle, and from there across the city towards what was probably going to end up being a clandestine meeting in a pizza place.

Welcome to my life.

When I got there the afternoon was wearing on and the storm overhead was on the edge of breaking.  Word was it was going to be the biggest storm to hit Chicago in a century. Hardly surprising, considering what was going on. The natural word tends to react violently to that much power being thrown around, and if Death or the Erlking did manage to show it was only going to get worse.

There were a few cars on the road, but apart from the black Impala parked across the street they were all hurrying to clear the area. Even vanila mortals can sense when something is nearby and on the whole peoples survival instincts still work just fine when something as big and nasty as this shows up. They would tell themselves they just wanted to get home in out of the rain and lie to themselves about the creeping feeling at the back of their necks.

It was the smart thing to do, but hell when have I ever been known to be smart?

I parked the Beetle beside the Impala and turned up the collar of my leather duster as I stepped onto the street. Bob had given me the name of the pizza place but I wouldn’t have needed it. I could feel the weight in the air, and that lingering scent of death clinging to everything in a sticky sweet coating. I crossed the street trying to avoid the large front windows and peaked in through the painted glass of the door.

I didn’t have a plan. I had hoped to stop him before he really got here, but there he was, sitting in the dark restaurant in a black suit surrounded by the remains of the former patrons. Death was focused on his pizza, but as I watched he was joined by someone else.

The man looked to be just over average height, which still put him several inches shorter then me. He had short dark brown hair and wore an on old heavy canvas army jacket like I wore my duster, well used armor that he carried so often he no longer noticed the weight. the weapon in his hand wasn’t so familiar. the hand scythe had flecs of rust on the blade and the handle looked too small for his grip. He held it as if he thought it might attack him at any moment. Since I was getting the same vibe off the weapon as I was from the Horsman I figured that was a fairly smart reaction.

The man crept forward. Not really trying to hide but still blending into the background. From outside I was mostly cut off anyway but I was willing to bet I could have been standing beside him and wouldn’t have been able to hear his footsteps. He moved like a predator, not anything supernatural, but not something many people could do either.

Then the weapon in his grip started glowing red hot. I flinched and had to look away as he cried out and dropped it. My left hand throbbed with phantom pain. I nearly missed the quiet words Death offhandedly spoke.

“Thanks for returning that. Join me Dean, the pizza’s delicious.”

The man, Dean, showed a healthy amount of hesitation before approaching the horseman.

“You as well, Wizard. I’d rather we were all civil about this. Sit down.” Death did not look up from his meal.

I winced. I wasn’t going to pretend he meant anyone but me. I knew who I was facing and while I didn’t know this Dean character, he’d shown enough courage to make me gather my own.

Call it macho, or mob mentality or whatever else, but there’s something about knowing you’re not standing alone that makes it easier to stand at all.  I pulled my new grey cloak tighter around my shoulders and opened the door.

Dean waited in front of Death’s table. His attention was mostly on the horseman but he spared a few glances in my direction, sizing me up as I had him. His eyes lingered on my staff, the runes glowed with soft flickers of hellfire as I held my power ready.

“So, wizard, likem Oz or Gandalf?” Dean seemed to be trying for jovial but there was too much tension in his spine.

“Depends on the day.” I said matching his tone. “You?”

“Hunter.”

I looked him over again, my impression of him increasing. Hunters were a rare breed. Not only did they face the supernatural, and have a surprising amount of knowledge about it but they did it without the benefit of magic or even a decent support system like Murphy. they were the bounty hunters and cowboys of the supernatural world. Occasionally a low level practitioner would take up the hunt, but most hunters were pure vanilla mortal, they had to be, otherwise they’d get tangled up in the unselle accords.  

“Sit,” Death said again, glancing between the two of us. “Eat.”

Dean looked down at the pizza again, clearly weighing his options, but I had one card I thought I could still play.

“We thank you for your hospitality this day and gratefully accept your invitation.”

Dean looked at me as if he was questioning my sanity and I didn’t blame him, but what the hell. The laws of hospitality had saved my ass before.

Death nodded sagely, accepting the implications and invited us to sit again by serving two thick slices of pizza onto the plates across from him.

Dean looked shaky as he sat. I wasn’t sure I looked much better. We were both very aware of who was sitting across from us and the only reason I wasn’t running away was because there was so much else on my plate. At this point sitting down for a meal with death didn’t even look like it was going to be the strangest event of my day. At least he was being nice about it, even if he could kill me with a thought.

I wondered what Dean’s reasons for being here were.

Death glanced at Dean. “It took you long enough to find me. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

“I’ve got to say, mixed feelings about that.” I had to admire his snark. Take it from a professional, it’s not as easy as it looks to come up with smart-ass remarks in the face of certain death. “So, is this the part where you kill me?” He glanced sideways at me. “Us?”

Death looked at dean straight on for the first time. his expression was cold and remote but if I had to put a name to it I would have said he was disappointed.

“You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me a thing like you, well.” Death paused and took a slow drink. “Think how you’d feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. this is one little planet, in one tiny solar system, in a galaxy that’s barely out of it’s diapers. I’m old Dean, very old. So I invite you to contemplate how very insignificant I find you.” He glanced from Dean to me then pointedly down at our plates. “Eat.”

Under his intense gaze, Dean and I reached for our forks and cut into the thick crust before us. I had to admit, I was hungrier than I had thought I was. I had been in full on case mode, for days now, trying to deal with the Kemlarites. I tucked in.

Dean was a bit more hesitant, he took a single bite as if he thought it might be poisoned. As if anyone would dare poison Chicago pizza. the little folk would never let them hear the end of it.

“Good isn’t it.”

Dean gave a shrug. “I gotta ask, how old are you?”

“As old as God, maybe older, neither of us can remember anymore. Life, Death, chicken, egg. Regardless, at the end, I’ll reap him too.”

I tried not to choke on my mouthful, reaching for the glass of water beside my plate and downing it. The almighty and I had never really seen eye to eye, but even so. Apparently Dean was thinking along similar lines.

“God, you’ll reap God?”

“Oh yes,” Death looked up again letting the slow inexorable weight of his power glide over us. “God will die too Dean.”

Dean tried to laugh it off. “Well this is way above my pay grade.”

“Just a bit.” and Death was completely serious.

“So then why am I still breathing?” Dean asked.

I had to admit, I was interested in the answer to that one.

“Sitting here with you.” Dean went on. “What do you want?”

“The leash around my neck, Off!” I had to fight not to flinch back at the intensity in Death’s words. “Lucifer has me bound to him. some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants when he wants. That’s why I couldn’t go to you. I had to wait for you to catch up.”

As he explained I reached out with my wizards senses. Now that I knew it was there I could feel the binding he spoke of. It was an old spell, full of blood and darkness, woven like a spider web through and around Death’s manifested form. It looked delicate at first, but is I brushed against it I could feel the strength of the binding.

“He made me his weapon, hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I’m more powerful then you can process and I’m enslaved to a bratty child throwing a tantrum.”

I winced at his raising the dead dead comment. It managed to remind me why I was here though.

“And you think, I can unbind you?” Dean didn’t seem to believe it even as he said it and I had to admit I agreed with his scepticism.

“There’s your ridiculous bravado again, of course you can’t. But you can help me take the bullets out of Lucifer’s gun.” Death leaned forward holding out his hand to display the ring he wore. “I understand you want this.”

Dean glanced at the ring. I could tell even without using my sight that It was a powerful talisman, it would have to be. Death wore the ring on his right hand, the side of the body that reaches out to touch the world. Every time he channelled his power it would move around and through that ring. That alone would have made the ring unbelievably powerful, but I could sense more. It was a power sink. Like my force rings, it was designed to gather in power; but where my rings were a punch that ring would be a tank, a bomb, a comet's worth of force, and not just kinetic force but the force of Death. I had had the smallest taste of that power when necro-Bob had come out to play, and here was a wellspring of it offered up in front of me.

Forget Kemlar’s book, if anyone got their hands on that ring they wouldn’t need the dark hollow to become the next dark god. I fervently squashed the idea that I could use the ring to protect my city. I had already had that conversation with Kumori, and my opinions hadn’t changed, still …

Dean glanced at the ring then offered a nervous smile. “Yeah?”

“I’ll give it to you.”

The scary part was, I didn’t think Death was lying. He was going to hand out the most powerful weapon I’d ever seen, just like that.

“You’ll give it to me?”

“That’s what I said.”

Dean hesitated, he seemed to be just as sceptical as I was, but whatever he wanted the ring for it must have been important. He glanced around as if looking for the catch.

“But, what about, Chicago?”

My eyes turned to him fully for the first time. Chicago was my city to protect. Normally I was alone in the ‘stupid enough to put my life on the line’ department, but he had just thrown himself out there without a thought.

If we both survived the night I’d have to buy the man a beer, he was the kind of person I think I’d be glad to know.

“I suppose it can stay, I like the pizza” Death said it as if he didn’t really care one way or the other, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Pizza, saving the city of chicago, one slice at a time.

Death drew the ring off his finger, offering it to Dean. “There are conditions.”

Dean kept glancing between Death and the ring.

“Okay, like?”

“You have to do whatever it takes to put Lucifer in his cell.”

I thought of hellfire and an old silver coin buried under the floor of my basement. I thought of Nicodemus and the causal way he threw around power I could barely hope to manage on my best day. And the Denarians were only his generals. I didn’t want to contemplate what Lucifer would be like. No wonder Dean wanted the ring.

“Of course.” Dean said.

“Whatever it takes.”

“That’s the plan.”

“No, no plan, not yet. Your brother, he’s the one who can stop Lucifer, the only one.”

I tried not to think about what I was hearing. Tried not to think about my own brother and what it would be like to be in Dean’s shoes right now.

“Wait, you think?” Dean’s voice was tight and I didn’t blame him.

“I know.” Death’s tone was light, but there was finality in his words. “So I need a promise, You’re going to let your brother jump right into that fiery pit.”

I looked away. I didn’t want to see the choice on Dean’s face. Still, I couldn’t miss how Death held out the ring.

“Well, do I have your word?”

It took Dean a moment to answer. “Okay yeah,” He licked his lips, his voice firming, “Yes.” he held out his hand.

“That better be ‘yes’ Dean. You know you can’t cheat death.” He let the ring fall into Dean’s palm. “Now, would you like the instruction manual.”

“Umm, Yes?”

For the first time since I had come in Death turned his attention to me. “I trust you know the tri-point circle theory, wizard?”

“Umm, Yes?” I mirrored Dean’s earlier statement.

“Good, because Lucifer has forbidden me to reveal any weaknesses of his.”

“And he didn’t tell you to not hand over the ring?” Dean looked a little worried, he held the ring clenched tight in his fist as if Death might change his mind.

“I don’t think it occurred to him.” Death reached for his soda draining the glass before turning back to his half-finished pizza.

My brain finally parsed through the information it had been handed. “Wait, that’s why I’m here isn’t it? Why you didn’t get pissed when I showed up. Hells bells that probably why Bob was able to sense you at all.”

“You can consider it the price for me to leave Chicago if you like.” Death answered without looking up from his food.

Dean pulled in the ring a little farther, looking from Death to me. “Look I don’t know you but trust me you don’t want to get messed up with this.”

“You don’t have to convince me, but one lesson in basic rituals is a damn good price to get him out of my city.” I glanced at Death, as soon as the words were out of my mouth. “Umm, no offence.”

Death didn’t even bother looking up which I chose to take as a good sign.

I looked back at Dean, then moved to remove the glove on my burned left hand. “Look, I figure we’re both short on time so I’ll just give you the crash course.” I leaned over the table holding out my hand to feel his aura. He glanced at my hand but didn’t flinch, if anything he seemed to be sympathetic. I ignored the flash of gratitude I felt, concentrating on my task.

His aura wasn’t quite like anything I had felt before. It had the same steady power that weaved through Michel’s aura, but without the steady, ever-present thrum of faith magic. If anything he it felt like he was a minor practitioner who mixed some faith in with the magic. He’d said he was a hunter so that made a kind of sense. A lot of things reacted stronger to faith than just magic on it’s own. He also had a pair of enchantments woven through him, nothing that seemed harmful, protections, one over his heart the other on his shoulder, though I didn’t have time to work out what they were designed to protect against. they wouldn’t interfere, and that was enough for the moment.

“Ever done a ritual before?”

“Yes, but how the hell do you know how to work Death’s ring?”

The truth was, I didn’t. Luckily, magic was flexible, and Death had already given me all I needed to know. I brushed off the question, tugging my glove back on.

“Wizard. Now, the tri-point circle theory, is simpler then other rituals but it’s also harder to maintain so you’re going to have to concentrate.” I grabbed some of the napkins from the dispenser and fumbled through my duster’s pockets for a pen. I came up with a blue sharpie and decided, good enough. I drew two quick circles on the napkins drawing the standard five pointed star over the first and a cross through the other.

“These are probably the layouts you’ve worked with before.” I tapped the pentacle diagram with the pen. “Four natural elements, plus spirit, inside the circle of will.” I tapped the crossed circle. “Four elements, tied into the four directions, strong layout, but without the personal touch.”

Dean was nodding.

“The tri-point circle theory doesn’t have the base in the elements, because what you’re trying to trap isn’t connected to this world.” I pulled over a new napkin and drew another circle. This time I added three dots to the outside of the circle, the points of an equilateral triangle.

“The three points represent mind, body, and spirit, one symbolic object for each point. So, what have you got to work with?”

“Rings of the four horseman.” Dean said, looking down at the various diagrams. I took a moment, trying to figure out if he was joking. Death may have been the leader of the horseman but I doubted the others were any less powerful, and they probably hadn’t given up their rings nearly as easily. I tried to put that aside for the moment and figure out the implications, and how they would effect the spell.

“Four rings so wouldn’t it be…” Dean tapped the diagram with the crossed circle, but I shook my head.

“If you’re really trying to trap Lucifer, then Death’s right, the tri-point will actually be stronger. Unless you’re trying to trap him here on earth.” I gave Dean a hard stare, managing not to meet his eyes as I did so. I didn’t want to get dragged into a soulgaze. From our brief interaction I had a feeling Dean’s soul wouldn’t be pretty, not that I could talk.

“Hell, no.” Dean didn’t hesitate.

I nodded. “Okay, then your best bet is to use the fourth ring as the circle itself.”

Dean’s forehead wrinkled in concentration. “War,” He said at last. “War’s ring is the only one without a stone.”

I ran through the logic and nodded. “Yeah, that’ll work, War is a human construct, Famine, Pestilence and Death aren’t. Death for spirit then, and I’d say, Pestilence for body, and Famine for mind.” I tapped the napkin as I spoke. “Just keep the purpose of each in you mind and activate the circle the way you would any other ritual.

“What? No words or anything?”

I shrugged, “Unless you know his true Name, it’ll be about wills at that point.” This time I did meet his eyes briefly. “The circle will help but I really don’t envy you.” Said the man who was still planning on trying to trap the Erlking in a few hours.

I tried to look on the bright side, maybe Death would take the necromancers with him when he got out of dodge. Yeah, and Dean would be letting me know how very cold it was in hell.

Across from us Death finished his final bite and stood. We both stood with him automatically. He nodded to us and without a sign he was gone.

“Fucking Creepy,” Dean said with a shudder. He glanced at me. “Look, thanks, for the info, but…”

“Yeah, go. I’ve got my own mess to deal with here, but.” I dug around in my pockets again until I came up one with one of my business cards. I offered it to him. “If we both survive the next few days, look me up. You put your neck out for my city, I owe you one.”

He took the card, glanced at it, then tucked it inside his jacket with the ring. “If we both survive.” He promised, and we headed for the door.

Outside, he headed across the street towards the black Impala, while I made my way to the Blue Beetle.  As Dean saw my ride, his face went blank.

“What?”

“That’s your car?”

I looked down at the blue beetle. At the moment it was more red, white and green then blue but it was mine dammit. I fixed him with my best wizard's glare. “Yes.”

“And it runs?”

I noted that the glare had no effect and shook my head as I ducked behind the wheel. I heard his faint chuckle as he got into his own car and we both drove off to try something stupid.


End file.
